


The First Words

by Lilac_Motion



Series: Soulmates Gaiden [3]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, First words your soulmate says to you, Gen, Soulmates prompt, Uzushio, uzushio mystique
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-11
Updated: 2016-10-11
Packaged: 2018-08-21 21:46:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8261428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lilac_Motion/pseuds/Lilac_Motion
Summary: Tsunade had seen these words written on her wrist for as long as she could remember: "My sister was twelve years old."  She had scrubbed and rubbed at it but it won't come out – and no one else could see anything marking her skin, so Tsunade had been too embarrassed to repeat the words to anyone except herself, "My sister was twelve years old", trying to figure out the significance.  (Soulmates Prompt: the first words your soulmate says to you.)





	

Tsunade had seen these words written on her wrist for as long as she could remember: "My sister was twelve years old." She had scrubbed and rubbed at it but it won't come out – and no one else could see anything marking her skin, so Tsunade had been too embarrassed to repeat the words to anyone except herself, "My sister was twelve years old", trying to figure out the significance.

Her grandmother Mito, noting Tsunade's scrutiny of her wrist, sat down next to her on the deck and asked Tsunade what was written there, and that was the first and only time Tsunade told, "My sister was twelve years old."

Mito had looked thoughtful and held up her own wrist for Tsunade to hold, there was nothing there on the soft skin that Tsunade could see, but she knew the words would be there, and Mito said, "When I was a little girl in Uzushio, I could see many things that others could not, and one of those things were the words written on my wrist: 'Sorry I was staring, but you are beautiful' As a girl, I was a terrible kunoichi, I was too brash in nature for sly mannerism – and my face was often not artfully painted but carelessly stained with sealing inks. I had also wondered what kind of man would apologize for staring – and that kind of man was your grandfather. He was waiting in the garden when I had arrived in Konoha and was presented to him by our matchmaker – for the longest time, he stared speechless at my face – then he blushed, said the words on my wrist, and we have been happy together since.

Every break back in Konoha, Tsunade had waited, for a boy to say to her the words on her wrist, however strange they were. When her brother Nawaki finally graduates, she mothers him with his favourite foods because by then she's the oldest of their family left, and she wonders if her soulmate has a sister Nawaki's age, if they will be on the same gennin team and if that would be how they'll meet.

The war drags on, and the frontlines eats up jounins and chunnins while D-Rank Missions fall in demand. Danzhou heads the motion to send gennins into enemy territory for scouting and sabotage missions, and Sarutobi-sensei grimly approves it. Tsunade is a frontline medic in the thick of battles, so she entrust her brother to Orochimaru, he specialized in black ops far from the big fights. She sends Nawaki off with their grandfather's necklace and a kiss on his forehead, thinking he'll be taller when he comes back.

Orochimaru returns to Konoha changed. Drags himself in through the gates with his back hunched like a wounded animal, and Tsunade knew before seeing Nawaki's absence from their numbers what, who, would be sealed in the scrolls clutched within Orochimaru's arms. The bags of bentos she has prepared slips from her fingers and she sinks to her knees. The returning party heads to the Hokage tower without a backward glance.

Much later, Tsunade stands alone in woods on the outer edges of the city, staring at her clutched fist and remembering the poisonous look in Orochimaru's eyes right before she had hit him. Two brothers she had once, one dead now and one changed – it will never be the same again. There is nothing Orochimaru has grown to loathe more than weakness, and over and over, he has seen how love has wounded them and left them weak, left their wills as brittle as cracked glass whence once were mights of fire forged steel. He blamed himself and he blamed her and he will keep pulling away at the very moment when she needs him near.

A young shinobi with long white hair had followed her from the Hokage's tower. He had sat downs several trees back from where she stood staring into the night, waiting. She had seen him in the street carrying flowers with a sad smile on his face, she had seen him kneeling before the memorial stone. When the birds of dawn begins to sing, and the pin-like sensation building in her feet reaches her brain, Tsunade finally walked over to his tree and sat down, her back against his, and he says, "My sister was twelve years old."

**Author's Note:**

> Nawaki's death is the point where Orochimaru's friendship with Tsunade starts to break down. You know how an animal wounded is the most dangerous? That's Orochimaru when Nawaki died on his watch, he couldn't stand being responsible for Nawaki's death so he immediately blames Tsunade for distracting Nawaki with the present of the necklace - a super dick move, but I see where he's coming from. With Orochimaru's distancing, all Tsunade has tying her to Konoha after Nawaki was Dan.


End file.
